Five minutes? Try 20-30% of your allotted time per question. If you are diving right in and just typing everything you know about the law, then you are way off track. Take your time, think about what you want to say, outline it, and say it.

Five minutes? Try 20-30% of your allotted time per question. If you are diving right in and just typing everything you know about the law, then you are way off track. Take your time, think about what you want to say, outline it, and say it.

Ehh... not necessarily. I usually go through the fact pattern slowly, taking notes in the margin and highlight/underlining facts/issues. I then spend a few minutes making some notes on the major issues I want to hit, then I launch into writing. I spend a lot of time cutting and pasting and moving things around... but I often dont spot all the issues or know exactly what I am going to say until I start the actual writing. I've often found that I think I will get to x conclusion, but once I start writing out the analysis, I go down a completely different path and get y as the answer. You can do just fine without spending 20-30% of the time on outlining.

I make notes in the margin, underline major facts, and usually have all my issues spotted before I start working, and THEN I take 5 minutes to outline all of that. I wasn't really thinking about everything I did *before* I actually outline.

Should've been a little clearer; I think overall, 2LMan is closer to the total amount of time.

I have the hardest time outlining answers. I read the passage, take notes in the margins and then move into my overall structure. Some things are easy (negligence starts with duty.... then breach...), but I'm so used to "free writing" on my laptop that I tend to organize in my head, write and then move around chunks of copy. Anyone have good tips on outlining? My handwriting is terrible.

I have the hardest time outlining answers. I read the passage, take notes in the margins and then move into my overall structure. Some things are easy (negligence starts with duty.... then breach...), but I'm so used to "free writing" on my laptop that I tend to organize in my head, write and then move around chunks of copy. Anyone have good tips on outlining? My handwriting is terrible.

Yeah, even when I try to make an outline, stuff keeps popping up while I'm writing, thus making my whole structure plan go out the window. Sigh.

i used scratch paper as well. My Contracts Professor said he wanted his answers in IRAC form. So i would spot the issues, list them on the scratch paper with maybe a word or two to remind myself why this is an issue and why it makes it so it isnt a contract, and then i go into my IRAC form in my bluebook

I spend 5-10 minutes reading the fact pattern then briefly answering it. I dont outline an answer before going in to it. I have friends that love that approach, but it just doesnt make sense to me. I just read the fact pattern, type the issues up that need to be addressed (I do this in advance so that I dont forget an issue and so I can figure out a time allotment for each problem), then I go to work. Most of my friends follow 2LMan's advice, some take a little longer even, but do what works for you. For me, I have the issues typed up, then I flip to my outline and copy the rule part, and go from memory on the application. The conclusion is BS, but I just make that up when I get to the end based on which arguments I found more persuasive or what view point the question was coming from.